I’m sure I’m not alone in being excited for the PTE patch to hit stable and for all Planetary Annihilation players to benefit from its changes. However, it’s not quite ready. But that’s OK because the latest batch of changes have just been released and they include some rather essential fixes, including one for the long standing issue of the last slot in a lobby becoming broken.

Reworked uploading of server mods and added server browser hook

moved uploading of server mods by host into connect_to_game which fixes many issues with the new game lobby loading without server mods ready and the freezes while server mods are uploading and remounting

added needsServerModsUpload for hosts starting a game or joining a waiting custom server

added serverModsUploading while uploading and remounting server mods

changed server_state handler to upload server mods if needed before redirecting to new_game

added mount_mod_file_data handler to remount server mods once uploaded then redirect to new_game

added hook for community mods to server_browser.js (will be used to show missing companion mods prior to joining or spectating games)

Fixed game over server freeze while writing replay

fixed server mods not mounted by client in replays

added downloading_mod_data client message once replay file is loaded

added client.downloadModsFromServer once replay file is loaded

fixed server freeze 30 seconds after game over while replay is being written which prevents chat, stats, review, etc

removed writing of replay after 30 seconds

added REPLAY_TIMEOUT defaulting to 10 minutes to main

added –replay-timeout command line option to set REPLAY_TIMEOUT on custom servers

added write replay after REPLAY_TIMEOUT seconds even if all clients not disconnected (allows enough time for chat, stats, review, etc)

added REPLAY_FILENAME with default of empty for Uber servers

added –replay-filename command line option to set REPLAY_FILENAME on custom and local servers

changed game_over to use REPLAY_FILENAME if provided

added UTCTIMESTAMP option for REPLAY_FILENAME to automatically name replays on custom servers

Fixes for landing crash and can’t join game with revised colour table (work in progress)

Fixed long standing can’t join game with empty slots issue caused by ubernet player disconnecting from lobby without leaving and calling removePlayerFromGame.

Added disconnected to removePlayer.

Added remove_disconnected_player message for host with ticket of player to be removed from game.

We hope by now that you are aware of the Legion Expansion, the new faction for Planetary Annihilation. While its still in beta at the moment, this Saturday’s SuperCommander will be a Legion tournament. You will be free to choose between either MLA or Legion.

This tournament is open to all, but to participate you will need to be running the PTE. That’s basically a beta patch for Planetary Annihilation. See our PTE guide for information, in particular step 10 which is necessary for you to see the servers that will be used for this tournament.

If you’re not playing then check out the tournament sidebar for details of the streams you’ll be able to watch the action on.

As you may be aware the PTE servers were recently taken offline, thus preventing PTE users from playing in multiplayer games. However, there’s a workaround that will allow PTE users to play multiplayer (non-Legion) with stable version users. We’ve updated our eXodus explains: Planetary Annihilation PTE guide to provide this. Please see step 10 of the guide.

The Legion Expansion adds an entirely new faction to Planetary Annihilation. That’s over a hundred new units, offering a playstyle that’s completely different from the original faction. Currently in public beta, a new version has been released.

At the moment it is not possible to use the faction in multiplayer as it’s only accessible via the PTE, and the PTE servers have been taken offline for the time being. Thankfully the PTE is expected to move to stable this week at which point you’ll be able to play it against other humans once more. Until then the AI still works, either using the built-in AI or Queller AI.

General

Patriots automatically place themselves at the back of formations

MLA Commanders now outlined in blue in the lobby to match Legion

Earthshaker causes smaller forest fires

Corsair prioritises structures (excluding walls) over mobile units

Rampart uses team colour for its switching off effect

Balance

Gustav nerfed:

range decreased to 500 from 550

Earthshaker nerfed:

damage reduced from 2000 to 1500

Comet nerfed:

build cost increased from 2400 metal to 2500

health decreased from 4000 to 2500

bomber tag added to ensure ground AA shoots it before fighters

Nova overhaul:

build cost increased from 90 metal to 120

health decreased from 180 to 120

causes constant damage to all enemy air units within close proximity for 20 seconds

So you may be aware that on Saturday the Big Brother tournament was hosted, courtesy of River. This event was a 2v2 swiss, with the twist that each team could only have one platinum or higher ranked player. You might remember this twist from the Clopsey Pro-Am event.

Thanks to this unique setup we saw a lot of very evenly matched teams fighting in incredibly close matches. These matches were covered by River himself who cast the entire tournament, as well as a few players who captured their own point-of-view.

The first two videos have already gone up and more will follow over the course of the week, so check in or grab the eXodus eSports in-game mod to keep track of the video feed.

With the Legion Expansion out there now a lot of people are getting their first taste of the faction. It takes a little getting used to and won’t play quite the same as MLA. In some cases we’ve identified balance concerns and this will be dealt with in the next patch, but in others it’s that players are used to the game playing a particular way and need to approach the Legion differently.

Lead Balancer Elodea had this to say about the balance of this new faction:

“Our goals for pacing are roughly as follows:

Early game: skirmish phase. MLA does all it can to expand and harass in order to set itself up better for the mid game against a matured Legion economy. MLA having an expansion advantage is baked into the faction balance, with some of it compensated with +1 metal income in the T1 Legion Mass Extractor.In regard to MLA having trouble making significant attacks early on, keep in mind that Hives being buggy at the moment is hiding this layer of early gameplay. This will be addressed in the next patch.

Mid game: conflict phase. Legion’s infrastructure has matured enough to allow it to make much less risky offensive pushes.

Late game: if both players have survived until now, they are fully duking it out on equal terms with T2 armies, titans and such.

At first it will seem like games are unnecessarily prolonged because it’s different from the MLA vs MLA gameplay we got used to where it’s a rush to whoever can snowball the other the quickest. However, I think games that constantly have the players going back and forth are better than those where one player gets a sudden decisive advantage. For me an exciting game could be a 2 minute game as much as a 2 hour game – it’s all about the journey.

One of the problems with the MLA pacing I wanted to solve was that 1v1 never felt like it had a natural timing for escalation and progression to T2. It hinged much too heavily on players being equally skilled so that unequal matches tended to be incredibly volatile. While most games will roughly follow the above, you still have options for fast timing attacks though. For example air first Marauder pressure, Purger cliff sniping, Peackeeper/Lancer combo rushing, and maybe other cool combos I haven’t discovered yet.

That said, it’s true that not everyone has a lot of time to play any one game, so I am hoping to have 1v1 legion games be about 20-25 minutes on average. If the vast majority of games I see on PA Stats and Twitch streams end up significantly deviating from this then it’s an issue that will get attention.

It’s also true that legion’s slower expansion gameplay has an impact when it comes to fighting on many different planet radius or metal densities. We are aware that raiding potential forms an important part of the toolkit players have to deal with these changing variables. As such we have specifically given Legion units such as the Marauder, Stoke, Comet, and Starcannon. Patriots are also much faster than Spinners, allowing you to raid with Peacekeepers and Lancers even without air control (a big problem with MLA).

I hope that gave you a better idea of what we intended to achieve for the Legion Expansion. However, if we are actually getting long spaces of nothing to do, prolonged games where the winner is obvious already (1v1 especially), or cookie cutter roles and builds, then the team and I will definitely try to address them!”

One of the things fans have been crying out for ever since Planetary Annihilation was released was another faction. A staple of RTS games since the dawn of time, multiple factions didn’t make it into the game due to budgetary constraints. We had to settle for just one.

Until now.

The Legion Expansion is a community mod which introduces an entirely new faction into the game. Featuring as many units as the original Machine Liberation Army (MLA), it provides an entirely new way to play. The Legion are far more focused on slower, more powerful units. There’s nothing subtle about them, they focus on holding their ground until they can achieve victory through a single mighty strike.

The PTE (public test environment) has been updated once more and comes with a lot of low level updates. If you’re a modder then this is all very exciting, and if you’re not then this means you can expect cooler mods in the future. Even if you don’t use mods a lot of the updates will help produce a better game experience for you.

Highlights in this PTE are fixes for the issues that plagued Linux users in the initial PTE, as well as support for custom Commanders. Yep, modders can now add new Commanders for you.

This also brings other benefits, the biggest of which is auto-updating. No need to ensure you have the latest and greatest, the game does all that for you now.

So grab the PTE and check out this new feature, along with the other tweaks, bug fixes and performance improvements it brings. Just make sure to uninstall your mods in PAMM first, then reinstall them via the Community Mods section. If you encounter any bugs or other issues you first stop should be the PA Support Wiki.